Separation apparatus



March 7, 1944. s Q cARNEY I SEPARATION APPARATUS -Or1ginal Filed June26, 1969 INVENTOR S. C. CAR/VEY Patented Mar. 7,

sEPAaA'noN APPARATUS Samuel Q. Carney, Bartlesviiie, th., assignor toPhillips Petroleum Company, a corporation of Delaware Originalapplication June 26,- 1939, Serial No.

281,294. Divided 311d this'apnllcation Ma! 28" 1942, Serial No. 444,897Q 4' Claims. ((31.259-3') The present invention relates to'an apparatusfor separating carbon black or any other fine,- dusty powder which isentrained as fine dust in a stream of gas or air, and is-a division ofmy copending application, Serial No. 281,294, filed/5 June 26, 1939, andnow issued as Patent No.

2,293,113. .Its purpose is similar to well known devicesin theart suchas bags, cyclone separators, Cottrell precipitators, etc.

In recent years most carbon black plants have been equipped with someprocess for increasing the density of the raw black by pelleting orgranulating,'as for example, by use of my pelleting process, copendingapplication, Serial No. 259,065.

"filed February 28, 1939, and issued February 16,

1943, as U. 8, Patent No. 2,311,145.

Black so prepared is known in the trade a dustlessfi Though it isrelatively du'stless as compared with the original material, thepelleting plants themselves are toa layman'far from dustless. It hasoccurred to operators 'of such plants that if a reduced pressure equalto one or two inches of water were maintained in the pelleting orgranulating apparatus and its necessary sieves and conveyors, dustincident to the pelleting proc- 2 ess could be prevented from escapinginto the building. But even when exhaust fans for this purpose have beeninstalled but little relief was obtained because of the well howninefficiency r lgag filters in collecting the very fine carbon llS Thereare also known processes for producing carbon black from gas bydecomposition which leaves the carbon entrained in the gas mixtureconcurrently produced. In these, cyclone. bag and Cottrell precipitatorsare used.

The cyclone: is very ineiilclent and the gases must be cooled v to a lowtemperature when bags are used.

My process uses as a filter medium the socalled granulated oragglomerated carbon black 40.

such as is now being produced by many plants.

The advantages of the present process and apparatus over known processesand apparatus are simplicity, low cost and self cleaning. As comared wth cyclone or bag separators, it more completely removes the carbon. Ascompared to the Cottrell precipitator, it is less efl'ective but moresuitable for small installations and for those cases, frequent withcarbon black, where the high efllciency of the Cottrell process is notrequired. 5.0

The object of the present inventionis to provide anapparatus in which touse assiomerated or pelleted carbon black as a filtering medium toremove the light fiocculent carbon black from a stream of air. g

It is further anobject'oi the present invention to provide an apparatusin-which to use agglomerated or. pelleted carbon black as a filteringmedium to remove carbon black from gases, both of h which are producedconcurrently in the decomposition process of making carbon black;

Other objects and advantages of the invention will be apparent duringthe course of the following' description.

The figure shows an elevational view, partly in section, of apparatuscombining the filtering process with a pelleting process.

The figure shows the invention with inclusion of the step ofcontinuously reconditioning the carbon aggregates of the filter bed; Itis adapted for the first means of recovery of carbon black entrained ina stream of gas as produced by a decomposition process, as distinguishedfrom the known channel process. In eilect, it combines the separationfrom the gas stream with a pelletlng process. By this means, thelowdensity 7 black has its density brought up in the separating process.

The numeral 8 represents acylindrical chamber having in practice adiameter on the order of six feet and is suitably inclined from'thevertical position withreference to the angle of repose 'cf carbonasglomerates. It is mounted on trunnions and arranged to rotate aboutits central,

axis. 7 The pipe 2 carries gas containing entrained fine carbon blackinto the space 3 in the end or the chamber. The pipe 2 has a swiveljoint 4 which allows the chamber i to rotate and the pipe 2 to remainstationary. The end of pipe-2* withlnthe space i is socovered by cup 5that 7 carbon aggregates will not roll into pipe 2 from the chamber i'..The lower end of the Archh medes spiral tube 1 is represented at l andthe tube I encircles the outside surface of the chamber l and theopening 3 communicates with the inside of the chamber I. The upper endof the spiral tube 1 again communicates with the interior of chamber i'at 8. Thus the extremely fine material entering the chamber I throughthe air stream passing through 2 from the decomposition process iscaught on the surface of the carbon agglomerates with which the chamberI is initially filled. As opening 8 comes to the bottomposltion,agglomerates will -iiow into the Ar! .chimedes spiral and will ceaseflowing as opening 6 comes to the upper position. Only the lower part ofeach coil of the spiral thus contains agglomerates which are carriedupward and discharged back into the top of the chamber I through opening8. 0n the passage upward through the spiral. the fine dust collected inthe bottom of the chamber I from the gas stream will be tightlyagglomerated on the previously formed granules and when reintroduced atthe top constitutes a fresh filter bed constantly i'ed downwardly. Themechanism of this agglomeration is the same as the Archimedes spiraldescribed in my copending application Serial No. 274,003, filed May 16,1939, which has matured into Patent No. 2,263,118.

Seed as described in this prior application may also be introduced atthe top of the chamber i in amount sufilcient to form a commercial ran eof sizes. As the content of cylinder i is thus being added to from thegas stream and the added seed, it will continuously overflow intodownpipe 9, the overflow being the crude product which is removed fromcommercial finishing and classification in the known manner.

It is to be understood that the form of my invention herewith shown anddescribed is to be taken as a preferred example of the same. and thatVarious changes in the shape, size and arrangement of parts may beresortedto without departing from the spirit of my invention or thescope of the subjoined claims.

Having thus described my invention, I claim:

1. Apparatus for separating from a stream of air or gas, carbon blackentrained therein as dust and at the same time agglomerating saidremoved carbon black to granules of carbon black comprising a rotatingchamber filled with granules and at the same time aggiomerating saidremoved carbon black to granules of carbon black comprising a rotatingchamber filled with granules of carbon black, an entrance into thechamber for the stream of air or gas containing the carbon black dust,an exit from the chamber for the clean air and a spiral rubber conduitwrapped around the cylinder for imparting a gentle rolling motion to thecarbon black granules to agglomerate the carbon black dust to thegranules.

3. Apparatus for separating from a stream of air or gas carbon blackentrained therein as a dust and at the same time agglomerating saidremoved carbon black to the granules of carbon black comprising arotating cylinder filled with granules of carbon black, an entrance intothe chamber for the stream of air or gas containing the carbon blackdust, an exit from the chamber .ior the clean air, a spiral conduitwrapped around the cylinder and rotating therewith, said spiral conduitconnecting into the bottom of the cylinder and lifting the granules tothe top of the cylinder while agglomerating the carbon black dust to thegranules.

4. Apparatus for separating from a stream of air or gas carbon blackentrained therein as a dust and at the same time agglomerating saidremoved carbon black to the granules of carbon black comprising arotating cylinder filled with granules of carbon black, an entrance intothe chamber for the stream of air or gas containing the carbon blackdust, an exit from the chamber for the clean air, a spiral conduitwrapped around the cylinder and rotating therewith, the spiral conduitconnecting into the bottom of the cylinder and lifting the granules andat the same time, agglomerating the carbon black filtered out to thegranules, and discharging the granulesinto the top of the cylinder foranother passage therethrough as a filtering means,

SAMUEL C. CARNEY.

